Kinetic Publishing was created to give indie developers the kind of support our founder, Daniel Knight, would have valued while making Phasmophobia. Today, we revealed the publisher’s upcoming lineup during the first Kinetic Publishing Showcase.

The showcase introduced five games scheduled to launch between 2027 and 2028, while also giving audiences a closer look at the developers behind them. The lineup covers a wide range of genres, from sci-fi horror and supernatural mysteries to farming, exploration, and experimental storytelling.These are very different games, but they all share something important. They are projects we believe in and games we genuinely want to play ourselves.Contact Protocol: Paperwork, Starships, and Some Very Difficult Decisions.

Contact Protocol takes the stress of corporate paperwork and puts it somewhere considerably more dangerous: aboard a starship.
Players take on the role of a crew member aboard the Pale Horse, travelling toward Jupiter while encountering other ships along the way. Each encounter requires players to check documents against company records and determine whether another vessel can be trusted.

When something does not add up, players have to make a decision. They can continue the journey or fire a torpedo and eliminate the potential threat, knowing that doing so will cost the lives of everyone aboard the other ship.

The game steadily increases the amount of information players need to process while presenting increasingly difficult choices. That focus on decision-making under pressure was one of the things that immediately stood out to us.

Contact Protocol launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in Spring 2027. Players can access the game on both console and PC at no additional cost through Xbox Play Anywhere.

Crescent County: Witchcraft, Racing, Deliveries, and Romance
Crescent County stood out to us from the first time we saw it. Developed by Electric Saint and led by Anna Hollinrake, the game combines an open world with witchcraft, technology, racing, deliveries, and romance.

Anna’s distinctive visual style is present throughout the game, from its painterly environments to the way different activities flow into one another. In the early builds we played, moving between delivery jobs, racing and romance felt natural and surprisingly seamless.

We first met Anna during the first event Kinetic Publishing attended, and it did not take long for us to become attached to the world she was creating.Crescent County also brings a strong sense of identity to its setting, with its celebration of queerness and witchcraft sitting at the heart of the experience. It is a combination that immediately connected with our team, and we think players will feel the same when the game arrives.

Crescent County launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in Summer 2027, with Xbox Play Anywhere support allowing players to access it across both platforms at no additional cost.Shellbound: A Metroidvania Built on a Living WorldShellbound takes the exploration, combat, platforming, and world-building we love about Metroidvanias and adds a particularly unusual idea to the mix.

The game takes place on the back of a giant snail, with players taking the role of a parasite moving through this living world. As they explore, they will uncover the remains of a vast civilization and gradually piece together its history.What makes Shellbound especially interesting is the way its parasitic abilities affect exploration. Players can take control of enemies and NPCs, using their abilities to reach new areas, overcome obstacles, and uncover hidden secrets.Developer Fake Lobster has built these mechanics into the structure of the world rather than treating them as a simple gimmick. The result is a game that feels familiar in some ways while offering something distinctly different.
Shellbound launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in Summer 2028, with Xbox Play Anywhere support included.

Aether Wizard Life: Magic, Farming, and a Town to Rebuild
Aether Wizard Life immediately impressed us with the scale of its ambitions. Vonder Games has brought together action RPG combat, platforming, exploration, farming, town-building, dating, and shopkeeping in a single game.

The impressive part is not simply the number of systems involved. Each one has enough depth to stand on its own, making the overall experience feel much larger than we initially expected.The game also has a striking visual identity, with a Ghibli-inspired art style, extensive character customization, and plenty of activities to discover. Beneath all of that is a larger mystery involving a group that is kidnapping wizards for its own purposes.

Players will be able to explore the town, build it back up, take part in its various activities, and uncover the mystery at the center of the story.Aether Wizard Life launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in Autumn 2028, with Xbox Play Anywhere support available across both platforms.PRECOGNITION: Sam Barlow Returns With a New Science Fiction Horror Story.

The final reveal of the showcase was PRECOGNITION, the latest project from Half Mermaid Productions and Sam Barlow, created in collaboration with horror director Brandon Cronenberg.

Previously teased under the name Project C, PRECOGNITION is a science fiction horror thriller built around ideas of time travel, prescience, and the consequences of interfering with time.Barlow is known for games such as Her Story, Telling Lies, and IMMORTALITY, all of which ask players to look closely at seemingly small details and piece together the bigger picture themselves. PRECOGNITION appears to follow that same approach, so players should expect a story that rewards careful observation and curiosity.

We have been fans of Sam’s work for years, and bringing a project like this into Kinetic Publishing’s lineup feels particularly fitting given our own roots in horror.

PRECOGNITION launches for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in Spring 2028, with Xbox Play Anywhere support allowing players to play across console and PC at no additional cost.

A Look Ahead for Kinetic PublishingThe first Kinetic Publishing Showcase gave us the opportunity to introduce five very different games and, just as importantly, the teams behind them.From the tense decisions of Contact Protocol to the colourful world of Crescent County, the strange landscapes of Shellbound, the ambitious systems of Aether Wizard Life, and the unsettling mystery at the heart of PRECOGNITION, the lineup covers a lot of ground.

There is still plenty more to come, but today marks an important first step for Kinetic Publishing. We are excited to see these teams bring their projects to players over the next few years.